The Boy in the Shadows

In the summer of 1970 a little boy disappears from an underground station in Stockholm. An unknown woman takes his hand and leads him away and he’s gone. Many years later the boy’s brother, Joel Klingberg, also disappears. His wife turns to Danny Katz – her husband’s old friend from the army’s interpreting school, a language and computer genius and a man with a sketchy past – and asks for his help. Reluctantly Katz agrees to look into the matter and he soon finds there are other secrets in the wealthy and powerful Klingberg family. His inquiries take him to a variety of contrasting environments in and around Stockholm. The drama takes a sudden turn when someone tries to frame him for murder. All at once his search also becomes a struggle for survival.

In the end Katz has no choice but to go out to the West Indies, where the foundations of the Klingberg family fortune were once laid, to a place marked by its history, colonial power, the slave trade, folk superstition and violence. In this heart of darkness, in a world where even death may not be the end, comes the dramatic, hurricane-tormented denouement of the tale.

-Dagens Naeringsliv, Norway

“The book is well made like a perfectly tuned movie, well written with a literary touch and suspenseful as hell.“

-Stiftstidende, Denmark

“It’s nicely planned, it’s global, it’s smart. At the end there is a twist, which prepares the ground for the following books about Danny Katz. And it’s fiercely suspenseful. One simply believes Vallgren’s plot.“

-Hallandsposten

“It’s exceptionally well written, and the style provides an antidote to some of the genre-stereotypes. On top of that there are lots of elegant snapshots.“

-Svenska Dagbladet

ENDORSEMENTS

“Swedish at its best. In Danny Katz Carl-Johan Vallgren has succeeded in creating a long-lasting and original main character.”

Siri Lindgren

Johanna Kinch

Magdalena Hedlund

about

The Hedlund Literary Agency was established in March 2011 by Magdalena Hedlund.

The company’s focus is general fiction, crime and thrillers while also representing a few, selected authors of children's books. The agency's principal area of expertise is selling Swedish translation and film rights to works by some of Scandinavia's most highly acclaimed authors. In particular, it represents Moggliden, the company of the Stieg Larsson Estate.